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Home Care Software Geek uncovers Four Key Mobilization Trends

My friend Barbara Bix from the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (www.masstlc.org) was able to attend a session on the future of mobility sponsored by MassTLC and featuring John Donovan, the Chief Technology Officer for AT&T. We're in an exciting time of "disruptive technology" (learn about disruptive technology here and by video here) with respect to mobile applications running on phones. Due to the availability and improved affordability of wireless data to cell phone a whole consumer industry has been born for "mobile apps", led primarily by the iPhone and the Droid phone. The importance of this for home care is that the consumer market will drive down the prices for phones and data plans and will rapidly improve the user interfaces for these mobile apps; and will thus pave the way for rich home care applications to move to cell phones. Here's Barbara's article:

“Always on networking” has shortened the distance from intent to action. Now, that people can get information immediately and effortlessly, consumption of applications has exploded. An increase in WIFI connections has also caused consumption to increase since people can now access the network from more places.

As application consumption has increased, network demand has soared. Mr. Donovan pointed to people addicted to watching the stock market as examples. In the past, due to delay and access issues, there were limits to the information they could consume. Now that they can get updates immediately, they check the market at every opportunity.

Similarly, as an outdoor enthusiast, he checks the weather constantly. Moreover, because he can, he checks the weather in each of the places his family members live. His parents, on the other hand, could only get weather reports for the next day on the nightly news–and not until 20 minutes into the program.

To give us a sense of the growth rate, Mr. Donovan said that the range of error in AT&T’s demand forecasts now exceeds their total activity 3 years ago. Nevertheless, he noted that the pace of growth, while still strong, is now slowing.

Video

Mr. Donovan sees video as the next frontier. Now, rather than “talk to me” it’s “show me”. Asynchronous communication enabled people to time shift work. Video allows you to place shift work.

Demand for video is growing so large, we’ll need to find new ways to carry more data on the network. The number of YouTube videos doubled in the last six months.

Software

A common language drives integration. IP and interoperability caused network growth to explode.

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) can eliminate the silos of voice, wireless, and Internet data because they now speak the same language. The availability of standards has caused the pace of development to accelerate. What IPs did for network growth, APIs now do for consumption.

The Cloud

The shift from the cloud to the network is an emerging trend. Today, people have duplicate systems on their cell phones, PCs, etc. Moreover, each of these devices has its own processor, power cord, etc.

We’re wasting a lot of storage and too much processing power goes unused. The situation is even worse at the enterprise level.

Standards will enable device independence and will increase efficiency. Intelligence will move from the device to the network.

We’ll be able to put computing power and storage in the cloud. Availability, search, redundancy, and latency will all improve.

The network will manage storage, security, consumer applications, business applications, and personas. You’ll no longer need both a home and work device. Content and applications will adapt to users’ needs rather than the other way around.

What's Next?

Mr. Donovan said the innovation he personally would most want to see is integrated medical monitoring. Now, there are apps to report weight, blood pressure reading, sleep restlessness etc.; but they are all point applications. He wants his clinician to see an integrated report.

Barbara Bix is a fantastic B2B marketing professional with great credentials such as a Wharton MBA, but she really excels becuase of her ability to take a customer view. Learn more at www.bbmarketingplus.com

Ankota provides software to improve the delivery of care outside the hospital. Today Ankota services home health, private duty care, DME Delivery, RT, Physical Therapy and Home Infusion organizations, and is interested in helping to efficiently manage other forms of care. To learn more, please visit www.ankota.com or contact Ankota.